Thursday, February 27, 2014

Crazy Balance Moves

Yesterday after work, I did a run focusing on speed intervals. I did 5 minutes of warm up and cool down walking at 3.5 mph. Then I did 8 intervals with 3 minutes at 7.1 mph and 90 seconds at 3.5 mph. This totaled 46:00 and 4.12 miles. It's amazing to me how running just a little bit faster can be so much harder. A few weeks ago I did the same interval set up, but at 7.0 mph, and it seemed so much easier. Even the Star Trek TOS episode I watched didn't keep my mind off of the fact that I was working so hard. But the intervals are supposed to help me run faster overall, which would be nice, so I stick with them.

I sweated so much and lost enough salt that I didn't get bloated up today after eating out last night with my husband and father-in-law. I even had a bunch of salty prosciutto (yum!). I do put Nuun All-Day in my water when I exercise, but it can't keep up with the electrolyte loss in running apparently.

This morning, I did P90X2 Chest + Back + Balance and X2 Ab Ripper. I have a love-hate relationship with this work out. I do love the feeling of actually finishing it. However, I hate some of its crazy balance moves because they are, well, crazy. Since I can't do a lot of unassisted pull-ups, I modify most of the pull-up moves to be regular pull-ups or chin-ups, using a chair to assist. But I do the rest of the moves as indicated. I will say that it's a good feeling of accomplishment to be able to do moves like the "side arm balance" on a medicine ball with essentially no struggle. Since the last time I did this workout, I definitely lost pull-up strength, but I kept my chest strength pretty similar. I burned about 240 calories on the whole thing. Afterward, I foam rolled my legs.